The ceasefire in Donbas is still being violated by small arms fire, Deputy Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine Alexander Hug has said.
Recently there have been just a few incidents of gunfire, in which small arms were mainly used, while heavy weapons are used chiefly during exercises, Hug told a press conference in Luhansk on Oct. 2.
SMM members have observed such exercises in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, he said. In particular, the OSCE mission observed 27 tanks in the rebel-controlled village of Kruhlik in the Lutuhyne district of the Luhansk region on Sept. 23. On the same day, 25 explosions were heard in the Ukrainian-controlled village of Novotoshkivske of the Popasna district. A Ukrainian Armed Forces commander told OSCE observers that the source of these sounds was exercises near Triokhizbenka.
Military exercises put people’s lives in danger, Hug said.
